Wild
Geranium
maculatum, Spotted Geranium,
Spotted Cranesbill, or Wood Geranium
is a woodland perennial wildflower native to Eastern North America . Wild
Geranium maculatum forms large clumps 12 to 24 inches tall
covered with delicate 1.5 inch
rosy-lavender to soft pink flowers. Wild Geranium is a favorite in the wild garden due to
its attractive foliage and flowers that require little or no maintenance and is spectacular as a mass in an open woodland, perfect for the border of a shade garden, or
naturalized in sweeps at the base of large trees. Wild Geranium prefers moist, humus-rich,
well-drained soil and high open shade and accepts sunny conditions with moisture
but will go dormant in drought conditions.

Native Wild Geranium maculatum are light blue, purple, or pink
and occur from spring to mid-summer. Leaves are palmately divided on long petioles arising from the crowns. The seed pods explode in mid-summer sending seeds in various directions leaving the opened seed pod looking like a little brown flower with petals curled back.
The pistil of the flower elongates into a beak-like fruit about 1–1½" long.
As it matures, the 5 slender carpels of this fruit curl upward and backward to fling the seeds from the mother plant.
The colony forming Wild Geraniums have dark stout rootstocks that produce
rhizomes and is high in tannins.

Geranium maculatum plants grow best in light shade to partial sunlight (also tolerates full
sunlight), moist to slightly dry conditions, and rich loamy soil with abundant organic matter. This plant
is one of the easier woodland wildflowers to grow. Geranium flowers attract
many insects including small butterflies, and skippers. The caterpillars of some moth species feed on either the foliage or flower buds, including Lacinipolia lorea (Bridled Arches), Heliothis virescens (Geranium Budworm Moth, Tobacco Budworm Moth), and Hemerocampa leucostigma (White-Marked Tussock Moth).
, Deer occasionally eat the foliage and Chipmunks eat the seeds. Wild Geranium is the showiest of the native geraniums with flowers at least 1" across.
Wild Geranium is a common plant of woodlands that occurs across most of the
eastern half of the US. It is a typical species of mesic deciduous
woodlands including floodplains, upland woodlands, savannas, meadows in woodlands, semi-shaded seeps,
glades and sometimes invades hill prairies from adjacent wooded areas.

Wild Geranium maculatum
seed capsule becomes beak-like
which gives rise to its common name of Crane's Bill (geranium means crane in
Greek). Wild Geranium's leaves and rhizomes contain tannin and were used by
early pioneers for tanning hides.

Native
Wild Geranium maculatum in the wildflower garden provides attractive
groundcover. It is a shade loving plant occurring
in rich or rocky open woods from Maine to South Dakota and Manitoba, south to
Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Zones
Geraniaceae (Geranium Family)

The map
below shows areas where native Wild Geranium maculatum plants grow wild but it can be planted and will
grow over a much wider area than shown. USDA plant hardiness zones 2 to
9.

Please contact us by email for shipping charges on
Wild Geranium maculatum
potted plants
include your zip code and number of plants for the shipping cost.

for seed orders use the chart below for shipping charges on our other native wild flower seeds,
to order copy and mail the order
form
or
email questions, comments and orders to
john@easywildflowers.com

Geranium seeds are not
available

Potted
Plants ARE available

We accept payment by check, money order, and through Paypal

The minimum seed order amount is $10, this can be a combination of different
seeds.